Chimpanzee Familiar

[Theocrat]

Hi all-
I'm finally getting a chance to play a PC. After all these years of DMing, finally.
I'm playing a wizard - with a Chimpanzee as a familiar. I've looked in every book that I thought would have it, and no luck. Mongoose's book of familars didn't have it, and neither did Nyambe, the book of fantasy Africa.
The closest thing was the Chaimparians from Hack-Master - but they are little too much for what I think I'm looking for.
So I need some help. What stats would a Chimp have, and what would it grant the PC? I think that they should be different enough - as I was only able to find babboon and ape in the animals sections of the MM. I did except to find it in Dangerous Denziens, but it wasn't there.

Thanks for your ideas.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

"there's no [chimp], but there's a Baboon!"

You might as well use a baboon (in the MM / SRD). I'm not sure about the special ability granted to the wizard, though. Perhaps a +1 to attacks when throwing feces? Seriously, maybe a bonus to balance and climb checks?

AR

 

[Senior Bobo]

Mage in my game had a chimp for a familiar. I could swear there's an entry for Monkey in the monster manual under animals. I used that. I won't claim to be enough of an expert on monkeys to say what the difference stat wise is between a chimp and a "generic" monkey. If you are just tweak it slightly. I'd guess slightly higher wis and lower str then a baboon or ape.

As for familiar benefits I believe I gave the mage +3 to Balance. It was between that or climb and I went with balance because it seemed different.

 

[the Jester]

Stats: maybe check the Tome of Horrors?

Granted ability: +3 to climb checks?

 

[Ferret]

Don't say the Em word! Oh wait thats orangutan...

Still, a +3 to some social skill.

 

[JimAde]

Isn't a chimp kind of unbalanced as a familiar? An improved familiar, maybe.

Ignoring their intelligence for a minute, a chimp is stronger than an average human, has about the same move, plus would probably have a climb speed, has relatively dextrous hands (and feet!) and can even use humanoid equipment in a pinch.

If it was me, I'd make you take it as a cohort

As far as stats, I'd probably do something like this (off the top of my head):

Small size
+2 STR
-4 INT (technically an animal has to have 1 or 2, but they're pretty smart)
+2 DEX

+4 Racial Bonus on Climb, can always take 10
-4 on Swim (chimps are heavier than water)
Improved Grab
Mute

 

[Theocrat]

Chimps are Fun!

Hi all-
I didn't think about the Chimp being too overpowered. Very well could be. If so, I'm sure my DM and I will have to work something out. Improved Familiar feat from one of the books (I'm using the WotC splat feat guide that they had up on their website sometime ago that included the FRCS and splat guides) didn't have much of a pre-requisite. But while looking at the Improved Familiar under AEG's Feats guide, it seems a bit more.
So what should I have to do. A cohort isn't until after leadership feat is taken, and I'm only a 2nd level wizard. In my background, I was given "Bobo" the chimp as a child. When I was sent to the Greyhawk School of Wizardry he followed along and he was the part of the first spell I cast. So that kinda made him part of the mix. So he could be too powerful - what should I do to bring him balance? What would you do in this situation - where a player has a decent idea but it might be a little too powerful? Tone it down some? but how?
I think that Chimps are smart and strong and dextrous. So likely an 8 int - or even lower since only the exceptional ones can use sign language. Dex and Str should be around 12 or so. All other stats should be around 6 or so. As for giving abilities to the Wiz - I was thinking INT since they are smart, at least smarter! Balance seems an interesting mix.

I appreciate your help. I too thought ToH would have it...nope. I think a Chimp is much bigger than a typical monkey. A baboon seems to be smaller as well.

 

[JimAde]

I was just joking about the cohort idea. They're not THAT good. Again, if I were the DM, I'd let you do it with an Improved Familiar feat. Start the INT around 6 and let it go up as it does for familiars. Just have to make sure it doesn't end up smarter than you

I would say Wisdom could be higher than 6. Maybe even 10.

I would be wary of letting it add to your Intelligence. That's the wizard's primary attribute. If this were the case, every wizard in the world would want a chimp familiar! You could have it add to your Climb and/or Grapple instead. Those are things wizards are traditionally weak in.

Baboons are, I believe, smaller than chimps.

 

[Furtive Noise]

I'd probably just let you take it as a normal familiar, but w/out having it giving you any added bonus like a plus to a skill. This seems like a simple balanced solution to me, as a chimp doesn't really seem worth spending a feat on compared to what kind of other improved familiars you could get from the feat. Just a thought.

 

[Ovinomancer]

My cohort has a spider monkey for his familiar. Need to ask the DM where he got it... I'll wander off and do that right now...